Mayor of Fort Worth, Mike Moncrief, with the agreement of Dallas’ Mayor Dwaine Carraway, says that Southwest needs to pull Airtran out of DFW much faster than what has been so far indicated.  There is a belief that Southwest might not have Airtran exit DFW until December.

Southwest, under the agreement over Love Field, is supposed to lose one gate for every gate it operates at DFW.  Everyone with an opinion agrees that it was not practical to expect SWA to stop Airtran flights to DFW upon the day they consummated the merger.  Gary Kelly has said from the beginning that there is an urgent intent to transition away from DFW as quickly as possible but has never stated what the date is for that.

Now quite a few parties in Dallas want to see Southwest commit to an expeditious transition and one that doesn’t see December as a target date. 

You wouldn’t think that an entire community would be so hostile towards an airline that by anyone’s measure has done so much for the community.   This is the other, uglier side to Southwest’s history in Dallas and I’ve always found it entirely distasteful.   It’s in poor taste to engage in this hostility towards an $11billion company that has remained loyal to the Metroplex and which has certainly behaved as a far better corporate citizen than another Metroplex based airline that happens to sit within Fort Worth city limits.

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